Thompson on Hollywood

And the Nobel Prize for Film Goes To...

Seeing that the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded last week, to Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer, Matt Brennan got to thinking: What if there were a Nobel Prize for Film? This week’s “Now and Then” column revels in some of the possibilities. Check out the trailers and post your own picks in the comments section below:

By Matt Brennan
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October 10, 2011 5:07 AM
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Michael Moore Talks Here Comes Trouble, Mel Gibson, Oscars, Politics, Georgia, and Bobby Kennedy

I first met Michael Moore back in the heady days when he made his name as a documentary filmmaker with 1989's Roger and Me by putting himself into the story of the downsizing of the GM plant in his hometown of Flint, Michigan.

By Anne Thompson
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September 26, 2011 10:03 AM
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Hollywood Politics: Alec Baldwin Studies for Mayor, Michael Moore Backs Matt Damon for President

“Alec Baldwin is not running for mayor of New York—yet,” reports the NYT. The politically ambitious actor plans to finish his role on critically acclaimed 30 Rock and then enroll in a master’s program in politics and government to learn more about what the job entails. He says that despite his fame, he still has a blue-collar mindset: "There are people who make a lot of money who become rich people, and then there are people who make a lot of money, but they don’t think like rich people do. No matter how much money they have, they are the same from their own upbringing. I would definitely put myself in the latter class."

By Maggie Lange
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August 10, 2011 4:57 AM
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Michael Moore Declares War on America's Uber-Class: "America is Not Broke"

Filmmaker/activist Michael Moore (Fahrenheit 9/11, Capitalism: A Love Story) is on the war path against America's greed-is-good uber-rich. On Sunday he impulsively flew to join protesters in Madison, Wisconsin--and he is as angry as Inside Job Oscar-winner Charles Ferguson, who declared at the Academy Awards: "I must start by pointing out that three years after our horrific financial crisis caused by financial fraud, not a single financial executive has gone to jail. And that's wrong."

By Anne Thompson
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March 7, 2011 6:37 AM
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WikiLeaks Reveal Bush Administration Attacks on Michael Moore

Michael Moore is nothing if not paranoid, but it looks like he has reason to be. When he reads through all the WikiLeaks cables, his own name crops up, more than once. It seems that the Bush administration was genuinely threatened by the damage that Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 could do. But the more the White House tried to hurt the movie, the more it fueled its success, Moore writes. Another WikiLeaks Cable from the Bush Administration About My Movies ...a note from Michael Moore

By Anne Thompson
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December 23, 2010 6:45 AM
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Michael Moore Writes A Boot to the Head Election Memo

Michael Moore is worried--as are many Democrats--about the midterm elections Tuesday, which could return control of the House (if not the Senate) to Republicans (many of them right of center) and bring on true governmental paralysis. He'll be on Rachel Maddow Friday night on MSNBC, at 9:00pm ET/PT. Here's his latest missive:A Boot to the Head ...from Michael MooreFriends,

By Anne Thompson
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October 29, 2010 9:27 AM
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Top Thirty Indie Films

Check out this list of the 30 most significant indie films in the last 30 years (full list, which includes three edited by the late great Sally Menke, is below).

By Sophia Savage
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September 29, 2010 5:23 AM
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John Steinbeck Award To Go to Michael Moore

The family of Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck (The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, Of Mice and Men) and the Center for Steinbeck Studies will give this year's John Steinbeck "In the Souls of the People" Award to documentary filmmaker and political gadfly Michael Moore (Fahrenheit 9/11, Bowling for Columbine).

By Anne Thompson
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September 22, 2010 4:08 AM
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Bigelow, Moore Join Academy Board of Governors

Let's face it. Most of the Hollywood veterans who serve on the Motion Picture Academy board of governors, while august and admirable, are older males. While documentarian/provocateur Michael Moore (Bowling for Columbine) is no spring chicken, in the world of the Academy, being in your 50s counts as young. And fellow Oscar-winners Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) and editor Anne Coates (Lawrence of Arabia) are women to boot. The Academy recently elected the three first-time Academy governors, along with nine incumbents and three filmmakers returning after a hiatus.